Are We Enterprise Leaders?

The leadership landscape is changing. There is no doubt that leaders today face disruptive challenges that are constant, relentless and global. Economic upheaval, social unrest, health crisis, climate change and disintermediation include new demands for new leadership in the new world, for the road ahead. 

Instead of simply managing a single team with a laser focused function, it’s becoming a necessity to be able to think and collaborate with the entirety of the organization in mind.

What exactly is Enterprise Leadership?

From a simplistic view an enterprise leader runs and changes the business all at the same time. They are courageous, innovative and radically human, motivated toward both driving exceptional results and inspiring enduring change for all stakeholders. These agile enterprise leaders interconnect purpose, performance, and impact collectively.

Enterprise Leadership begins with self-awareness but culminates in self-transcendence. It is really a move from self to service to serve all the ecosystems they touch. These leaders advance from “the now” of execution and impact to “the next” of enduring excellence and inspiration.

Courage may be the foundational meta-mindset of Enterprise Leadership. Before vision, before strategy, before authenticity, before impact, courage is the perquisite to go beyond limitations within us, with others, and on behalf of the enterprise. Courage is the core, the heart of Enterprise Leadership. Courageously stretching ourselves, and others, to create the new and the different is the enduring act of Enterprise Leadership.

Enterprise leaders share and develop resources across the organization, they do not hoard talent and financial resources in competition with peers. It is important to notice and reward leaders who are character-driven and therefore sacrifice their own short-term impact for the bigger collective gain.

Enterprise Leaders have answers to the following questions:

Purpose or the Big Why: Why is it important for us to exist?

Vision or the Big What: What can we become through living our purpose?

Strategy of the Big How: How do we get there?

Talent of the Big Who: Who can help get us there?

In conclusion, to succeed in today’s hyperconnected environment, leaders need to have wide reach within and beyond their business units. Transcending the borders and interest of self, function, company, community, and even geography to create lasting value for the whole enterprise and the whole ecosystem. In other words, Enterprise Leadership sees beyond current obstacles to new value creating realities for the road ahead.